And the Winner Is....

As most of you know, we sent out a Christmas Card Coloring Contest this year. All of you should have received this in your mailbox:

We were super excited with the results!  You guys did a great job! Take a look at all your hard work! (click on the images for a larger view)

Anthony Rose: Love the "Happy Holiday" colors!

Missy Farris: Very Vibrant! Love our rosy cheeks!

Bessie Hardison: Great animal accuracy!

Betty Woodlee: Extra Points for no red and green sweater!

Christy Pike: Best use of markers!

Justin Hardison: Great life like colors all around!

Leah Rose: Nice outlines and realistic clothes!

Tracy Farris: Best Lil Caesar. We love the pink bellied Rosie Dog and the snow capped "Happy Holidays"

Isaac Chandler (Age 6): Our First Entry. Points for creativity: blond Angie and "tan" Ryan!

Sophie Pike (Age 6): Never knew we wanted a purple tree!

Jadelynn Herman (Age 9): CHILD'S CATEGORY WINNER! Bonus points for remembering the banjo on Ryan's stocking!

Casey Sitz: ADULT CATEGORY HONORABLE MENTION! Realistic colors all around. Stayed inside the lines! 

And the winner of the ADULT CATEGORY IS......


(DRUM ROLL......)

MINDY YARBERRY! Most creative card: glasses for Lil Caesar, Smokies cap for Motorboat, a bone for Rosie, snowflakes on Angie's stocking, banjos on Ryan's, and the best move of all... a present under the tree for herself!

Congratulations, Mindy! We will have your hand-knit ornament for you the next time we see you!

Thanks to everyone who participated! You are all winners! We hope you enjoyed our card and we already have big plans for next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tree=Decorated!

As promised, we decorated our tree tonight, and here are the highlights.

Here's Angie and her "little sister" Jadelynn getting ready to put a couple of homemade ornaments on the tree.

Ryan was in charge of unwrapping ornaments and handing them out to be put on the tree.

Here's a new ornament we added this year.

Halfway through the trimming the tree we were graced by a visit from Angie's mom. Jadelynn was very happy to see her.

Here's a cool handmade ornament.

I don't know if you know this or not, but trimming a Christmas tree is very hard work, luckily Angie made cookies!

Here's Angie hanging one way up high.

And here's Motorboat checking things out down low.

And here's a video of one of the best ornaments ever.

Finally, the tree is done!

Christmas Tree!

Today we went to Bluebird Christmas Tree Farm to get our Christmas tree. We picked out this nice 8 foot Frasier Fir.

 Luckily, we know the owner of the farm and he was nice enough to give our tree a nice fresh cut...

...before Ryan loaded it into the car.

We also bought a really nice wreath. We raced home to put the wreath up before the sun went down.
Here's Ryan out on the roof hanging the wreath.

It turned out looking pretty good!

With the wreath up, we got to work putting the lights on the tree. Angie has a very specific way that she likes to the put the lights on, so Ryan just stood back and watched her do her thing.

She may be particular, but you can't argue with the results!

Tomorrow we'll get around to decorating it. But I can tell already its going to be an awesome looking tree. 

Sweet Child O' Mine

Today we had a "4-D" ultrasound performed to get a better look at Frank. Sometimes he's moving around so much Angie thinks he's practicing karate or doing jumping jacks. We just had to find out what he was doing in there.

For the highlights, watch the video below.

Well, not as much kicking and punching as we first thought, but you have do admit, that guitar solo was pretty awesome!

Frank's Baby Shower

Today was Frank's baby shower and it was a blast! Since it was Halloween, we encouraged costumes. I was a pregnant skeleton, Mindy was a cow girl and mom was a witch.

We played a few games, including guessing how big my belly was. My sister-in-law Danielle was the winner but my brother stole her prize.

We also played a game where you guess which candy bar is in the diaper.

After all the games, we started to open all Frank's gifts.

"I'm the Boss" onesie from Jessie

Doggy themed outfits from Macy and Michelle

Handmade quilt from Bessie and Buddy

"Diaper Cake" from Aunt Betty & Beth Ann

Handknit Sweater from Mom

Handknit "blue jeans" from Mom

In addition to all these pictured, we received a video monitor, blankets, clothes, diapers, wipes, and all sorts of other necessities. Then we enjoyed a wonderful almond cake!

We all had such a great time! Thank you so much to everyone who made it out and also to those who sent gifts. We are so much more prepared for Frank's arrival!

Mamaw and Papaw Visit

A few weeks ago Ryan's parents came down with Ryan's sister Casey's kids, Emma and Matthew. They were down in East Tennessee for Emma and Matthew's fall break. While they were down they stopped by for a visit. When they got here we all played a few rounds of cornhole on our new set.

Here's Mamaw Bessie taking a good toss, but Emma had a pretty hot hand at the game too, holing in her first three shots.

Once we were done playing games, we all went inside to visit. Rosie was pretty excited to see her favorite person in the whole world, Papaw Buddy.

The other reason they all came to visit was to bring Ryan a table and chair set that was built by his Grandpa Claude when he was a little kid.

Here's Mamaw Bessie and Matthew putting the legs back on it.

And here's Rosie testing out one of the chairs.

I'm sure Frank will love this table and chair set just as much as Ryan did when he was a boy.

Let the Betting Begin

So Ryan and I are always making friendly bets with each other about pretty mundane stuff. So when we found out about Frank we starting making bets about when he would accomplish certain baby milestones. I thought we could share with you when we thought he would do all his growing and changing. I will use an "A" for Angie's bet, and an "R" for Ryan's bet. Maybe you guys can decide what we should win if we're right!

Due Date:     A: Between Jan 8th and 12th 
                     R: Every other day

Rolling Over:   A: After 3.5 months
                         R: Before 3.5 months

Sitting Up:   A: After 5 months
                     R: Before 5 months

Crawling:     A: After 6 months
                     R: Before 6 months

Pulling Up to Stand:   A: After 6.5 months
                                    R: Before 6.5 months

Walking:   A: After 10 months
                  R: Before 10 months

Talking:  A: Before 14.5 months and his first word will be "Mama"
               R: After 14.5 months and his first word will be "Hi"

Cornhole in 10 Easy Steps

1. Cut Wood.

2. Assemble Frame.

3. Watch dog eat your wood scraps.

4. Finish attaching legs to frame.

5. Find a friend to cut the holes in the deck.

6. Make pregnant wife earn her keep.

7. Stain the deck.

8. Paint stripes.

9. Braid rope to make handles.

10. Admire cornhole set with homemade popcorn sacks.